"Those whom God wishes to destroy, they first make them arrange a two-day conference", is what the Greek tragedian, Euripides, would have said, had he been alive today. The Federal Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, which has not been able to liberate our 200-year-old bureaucracy from the use of papyrus, files, photocopies and affidavits, organised such a 2-day conference on 'Digital Foreign Direct investment' on 29-30 April 2025.

Even amid our grinding poverty, the opulence of this publicly funded festivity evokes memories of the Shah of Iran's legendary 1971 extravaganza marking 2,500 years of the Persian Empire.

It took a long 'right to information' struggle to discover how heartlessly the IT Ministry went overboard in misusing, wasting and squandering taxpayers' money — Rs447 million were blown up in venue setup, welcome dinner, cultural performance, digital tunnels (whatever that means), food and catering; Rs161 million were liquidated in advertising and marketing; Rs83 million........

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